Take This Longing

(album: Bread & Roses - 1976)

Many men have loved the bells
You fastened to the rein
And everyone who wanted you
They found what they will always want again
Your beauty lost to you yourself
Just as it was lost to them

Oh, take this longing from my heart
Oh, the useless things these hands have done
And let me see your beauty broken down
As you do for one you love

Your body like a searchlight
My own poverty reveals
How I would love to try your charity
Until you cry, "Now you must try my greed"
And everything depends upon
How near you sleep to me

Oh, take this longing from my heart
Oh, the useless things these hands have done
Let me see your beauty broken down
As you do for one you love

As hungry as an archway
Through which the troops have passed
I stand in ruins behind you
With your winter clothes and your broken sandal straps
I love to see you naked over there
Especially from the back

Take this longing from my heart
All the lonely things these hands have done
Untie my blue silk gown
As you do for one you love

You're faithful to my better self
I'm afraid she left
Let me judge your love affair
In this very room where you've sentenced
Mine to death
Look, I'll even wear these old laurel leaves
That you've shaken from your head

Oh, take this longing from my tongue
All the useless lonely things these hands have done
Let me see your beauty broken down
As you would do for one you love

As you would do for one you love